I don’t like categorizing a year as being a “good” or a “bad” or recounting “who we lost this year.”
Years are illusions. The marking of a “year” is a construct devised by a Supreme being who exists outside of “time.” A gift to help us carve up the tyranny of time that we are forced to sludge through. We mark the beginnings and ending of seasons with dates. We bracket them between January and December.
These months back up to one another separated by this illusion, like the Bering Strait. One side of the strait is the US the other side is Russia, and a whole day separates these two countries. They are a continuation of the same land mass, but to us they remain separated, in an illusion, like December and January. We want to compartmentalize the years and the good or bad things that the “year” brought us. In a way I think this is where the idea of “seasons” and “not forevers” helps us frame time – it is a gift. When the year brought good things, we celebrate and move forward hoping the trend will continue, but if the year brought bad, disrupting things, we turn our backs on December looking to the hope that January will bring – sorry December, you’re so last year.
Years as “gift?” God established them as such when he created the world. On the 4th day “God said, ‘Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from night; and let them be for signs and seasons and for days and years.’” … for signs and seasons. So, I ask, “Lord, what signs and seasons will I experience in 2025? What will you show me, and what will I experience?” I assume things (good and bad) will happen to me. This passage speaks nothing of goals or dreams, only the expectation that there will be signs and seasons. These are things I have no control over, as I know from my 60-odd years of living. Yet wisdom has taught me, I do have control over myself. To that end I set these objectives – loosely – for myself in the illusion we’ll call 2025.
In 2025 I want to be kinder, I want to pray better, I want to write more, I want to meet my obligations with cheerfulness, I want to work, deeply on the projects that matter, and I want to say less and love more.
Reviewing this list, I think I’m being a bit optimistic. Maybe I should reflect on what I don’t want to do in this next season. Are prohibitions easier to keep than objectives?
In 2025 I want to STOP engaging in negative words about … everything and everyone! I want to be known as a person who never utters a negative word. This must start with my thoughts; therefore, in 2025, I want to STOP engaging with negative thoughts. I want to see and seek the best in everyone, in every situation, and in every encounter. No matter where I find myself. I want to see others as God sees them. I want to understand the backstory of people. God has an advantage on me here, in that He already knows the backstory. So, I will actively set my judgments aside and trust Him – asking for His wisdom as I attempt to grow in love for others.
If I can rid myself of these two things I believe I will become more Christlike in the season to come. What a lovely thought. That indeed will be a “good” year.